Stem cell research has been a fast growing, highly successful, and at the
same time highly controversial field in recent years. Using a highly optimized
author co-citation analysis methodology to study the intellectual structure
of this field over the time period 2004–2009, we find that the induced
pluripotent stem cell breakthrough that earned Shinya Yamanaka the 2012
Nobel Prize in Medicine did indeed quickly redefine its entire research field,
and thus might truly qualify as a “paradigm shift” in Kuhn’s sense.